Moderators reserve the right and privilege to ban any account who comes into this subreddit to talk negatively against fraternity life or follows MSM stereotypes that all fraternity men are rapists/take advantage of drunk women. This is your warning.

How to create your flair / "How do I get my letters next to my name?"

Flair options are just above this message under "Show my flair on this reddit. It looks like:" Anyone can add their own flair under the edit menu

POSTING/LINKING TO ANYTHING THAT REMOTELY RESEMBLES A FRATERNITY'S SECRETS/RITUALS WILL RESULT IN AN IMMEDIATE BAN FROM THIS SUBREDDIT - YOU WON'T BE WARNED AGAIN

GDIs brigading or shilling against the Greek System will be banned on sight.

Please refrain from messaging moderators about these questions if you have not read this information. You will be told to check the sidebar, and immediately muted

Frat. Or, Not Frat is a weekly thread and it is the only place to ask these questions. Anywhere else is an automatic ban, as our mod team is forced to deal with these threads being posted multiple times a day. This is your warning.

So I come from a fairly new chapter, we got kicked off 5 years ago and got re-chartered this March after just over a year of being a colony. We are currently educating our Delta class and revised our pledge process after our Gamma class got initiated. However it's still pretty boring.

Our pledges have to learn our history, values, do community service, library hours, interview brothers and all that basic stuff. But outside of the brotherhood events we've organized (bbq's, luau's, pong tournaments etc) I think it lacks the fun aspect that makes pledging so memorable.

So I wanted to know what fun (and challenging) things other fraternities do that make their pledge process that memorable experience, keeping in mind that we currently don't have a house due to renovations.

Send them on a drive to some nearby city, preferably with another college.
Give them a list like any other scavenger hunt, each item being worth a certain amount of points.
We usually send them on their way at around 9pm so they are out all night and send about one active for every 4-5 pledges.
some of the stuff is pretty tame, like take a picture in front of a certain land mark. Some are more criminal in nature. Usually they get a little drunk first, not the drivers of course, and it helps them do more funny stuff. photo documentation is required. Goal is to see how many points they can achieve, set a minium.
Let the pledges get creative. One year a pledge stole a letter off the front of a frat at another college. still hanging in our house. stealing random useless things is always fun.

Me and a couple of my pledge brothers had to drive about 6 hours to Baton Rouge, LA from College Station, TX. We had a mixture of random tasks to do and stuff to collect at the LSU campus and at New Orleans. Mind you that this was during the weekend of a game between LSU and Florida.

We had to feed LSU's mascot, "Mike the Tiger" a corndog.
(We tried sticking a corndog into the the tiger cage, Mike licked it but a caretaker told us to knock it off)

We had to hoist a Texas A&M flag on LSU property.
(In the dead of night, we put the maroon banner on a random flagpole in front of the practice facility with the Shaq statue. We came out on game day and saw that the flag was still there.)

Steal a composite from the LSU Pike house.
(We tried stopping by but their doors were locked and they were out tailgating.)

Letters written on tittays, picture with a homeless guy, frozen pizza/other food, a blow up doll, campus newspapers, a gas receipt saying $0.99 or $0.01, random specific things around campus such as statues, film an impromptu video reenacting a scene from a famous movie (I think we did black hawk down).

we have the advantage that within 2 hours there are two other colleges with fairly large greek systems
take a picture inside a frat and a sorority at both. bonus points if you get them to do something funny (we had one sorority tweeze a bushy pledges eyebrows). Bury 3 pledges completely in sand, eat one of those comically sized burgers from a place, get a new potted plant for the house.
my class is over but when i think of more ill post again

The project is a way for the pledge classes to give back to the house and leave their mark on it.

The sneak is a prank they play on the members. Usually involves stealing things from the house that people really need (toilet paper, light bulbs, etc.), maybe the class paddle and composite of the class before, and if they're feeling really ballsy, they can try to kidnap an active. That one's pretty tough though. Then they skip town and get drunk with their loot while the actives try to track them down and exact revenge.

Each pledge class has a paddle with the semester and year listed, along with each member of the pledge class. They're all displayed down a hallway in chronological order. It provides a small sense of history when you can look at the names of alumni from a while ago.

We give the pledges a week to make a themed party on the first floor using all the common space. Each common space room has to be differently themed while still relating to the overall theme. The pledges must keep the party theme a secret from the brothers (only 2 brothes are allowed to know, they basically oversee the project and make sure the pledges don't do anything really fucking stupid.), the whole first floor is sealed to prevent anyone from looking in, paths are made to the stairs, allowing the brothers access to the other floors and their rooms.

Now, when we give pledges a week to work on a themed party, we expect the rooms to be completely different, this often involves building frames, to change the rooms appearance, to building all the props and furniture from scratch, such as a bar , some beer pong tables, chairs, dj stand what ever the fuck they want to do.

For example, if the theme was prehistoric times, one would find a room converted into a cave by creating a frame, using shit like chicken wire and sheeting material and paint it using stone spray paint, laying a tarp and covering the floor with sand, using filters, lighting and a fan to mimic fireplace lighting. using a fog machine and making smaller private "caves" for people to fuck in. That would just be one room, the others would be something like a jungle with real plants and grass brought in.

One time there was a moat in the Foyer, where the only way in is using a draw bridge. They built a frame, covered it using a tarp for outdoor fountains and filled it with water fish leaves fake ducks.

Prety much if the pledge is not in class doing/hw or eating hes working on the party. It builds teamwork, creates leadership, and pushes the pledges to really interact with other, get to know each other, bond , and ultimately fucking hate the shit out of each other and cause them to confront each other. It forces them to open up and remove what ever filters they may have had, and really call each other out when someone is not being accountable. Really, I look back to that week when I'm having a busy stressful week and realize what I'm capable of doing. Its a week you never want to go through again but glad you did, because nothing even compares. The party finally arrives, its a private party,formal of course with maybe some props, hats and shit, brothers pledges their dates and Alumni are invited. One thing remains true every year, the party the pledges made is the worst one ever. The best one, was your pledge classes theme and party. Finally its trashed by alumni, as its tradition and it has been since they said so.

Ah, memories.

Another great activity, falls under brotherhood, is calling up a nearby chapter with a big enough house, gathering up some brothers, renting out a bus and driving down there for a weekend. Its basically a shit show , no one remembers anything the morning after, often times brothers drunkenly wander off without being familiar to the town or campus and get lost. Pretty much everyone has a story to tell. Its also a great way to see how other chapters are run, and bounce ideas of each other.

tl;dr : Make pledges build a detailed themed party over the span of a week. Brotherhood : contact a nearby chapter, visit for a weekend you probably wont remember.

I'll help you out. WE had a membership review and I did the first pledge education program after the Alumni supervisors left. We did this one thing, please bare with me it sounds lame, where everyone makes a circle. A person says something about them that is usually looked down upon Ex: "I never got to know my father as well as I wanted to", then anyone who agreed with them stepped forward as well. This really brought the kids together and was a nice change of pace from the hazing.

Have a walk out. Contact actives from a nearby chapter, set up a weekend to go meet them with the pledges and some actives and go hang out for a day or two and learn their traditions and history. Guys from our Michigan State chapter came and visited us and it was one of the best weekends of the semester.

Our school called those "Sneaks". The pledges stole dinner from the house and threw a kegger for a little sneak, or did the same thing but took a road trip for the big sneak. If a pledge was caught after dinner was stolen we would ransom them to their pledge class for a keg, and they couldnt start their party/trip until all pledges had escaped. Since we had all of their class schedules we would just find one with an evening class and walk in or wait outside and grab him with 10 guys, throw him in a truck. We got a free keg pretty much every sneak.